5. The DoorsThe Doors
Did The Doors take themselves too seriously? Hmm… I don’t know how seriously though. Jim Morrison was fun. He wasn’t pious or earnest. He got messed up and he probably did nothing to stop himself getting messed up and he probably embraced the mess. In a way he was rather hapless and I’m sure that success didn’t suit him either. But also the fact that he died young added to the whole mythology of it and it now looks like he meant to die young and it was all part of Jim’s great plan: “I’m getting outta here before the whole shithouse explodes!” “We’re coming with you, man!” “Nah – there’s only room for one Lizard King in this module. Be seein’ ya, Ray!”
I thought The Doors were fun. They had an element that hadn’t been there before. It was the first time that doom really came in, and a sense that fate was against you, but that you were going to do it anyway. This has been in books and films, the doomed protagonist. The fact that Morrison did then die young put the seal on it but in a way, The Doors is really great loser music. The loser in me really loves The Doors, the side of me that thinks that relationships won’t work and that the best one you had was 50 years ago with someone you’ve never seen again and that it’s never going to work out and fuck it, let’s have another drink. “Yeah, I’ll open another bottle of Chateau Morrison!” It is kind of rather hapless but it’s also joyous. The earlier stuff more so. ‘The End’ is absolutely brilliant. I don’t think you can do something like ‘The End’ and take yourself too seriously.
